Bitten by Books, a paranormal book review site, recently gave The Unearthed a good review. If you're on the fence about buying it, check out the review. It doesn't spoil the story, and it gives you a good feel for what it's about.
I can't believe it's been nine months since the book came out. As far as unmarketed e-books written by first-time authors go, it has done well. Looking back now, I wish I had marketed it more, but in all fairness to me I didn't (and still don't) have the time, resources, or bank account for it.
It also doesn't help that I can't stomach shameless self-promotion.
That being said, I'll take this opportunity to once again thank everyone kind enough to buy, read, recommend, and/or review it! I see The Unearthed as a stepping stone really, something I'm proud of and can use as a marketing tool in query letters for future manuscripts. And, as far as first books go, I think it's pretty good. Even the agents and other publishers who passed it up had nice things to say about the story. Sure, when I look back at it now, I can think of a few things I'd like to change, but I'm certain all authors feel that way about most of the books they write. As the saying goes, you don't really ever finish a book; at some point you just have to abandon it.
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People have asked if there will be a sequel, and I'll answer by saying, yes, at some point there probably will be. But it will definitely be a very different story - I'm not interested in re-hashing the haunted house tale again.
5 years ago
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12 comments:
glad to see the unearthed is still getting good reviews... it was a great book... time for you to write books now that you can read to little fiona....
Yes, that's a validation, isn't it?
But speaking of little Fiona, where are those pictures?
Seriously, though--well, I am serious about that, but--it's nice to hear that the Unearthed has done well, and I think you're right to think of it as a kind of threshold effort that may well lead on to other things.
Philly,
Can't wait to start reading to little Fiona. Matter of fact, I guess I could start now.
We haven't been down to see you guys in awhile, how's the shop?
Seana,
I'm reading Crichton's posthumous release Pirate Latitudes (bad title, BTW) right now, and I was reminded of your blog, as the story is set in the Caribbean and mention is made of Tortola.
And to answer your question, yes, there will be pictures forthcoming!!!!
I guess that I will have to read Pirate Latitudes, then. I actually heard quite a tribute to the late Mr. Crichton on my friend Rick Kleffel's radio show the other night. He and Alan Cheuse were reminiscing about Crichton's career. Frankly, I'd thought of him as a bit of a hack, and maybe he was, but apparently, he was quite a brilliant one. I doubt you have much free time to listen but here's the podcast if, say, you need some middle of the night entertainment.
If you say the pictures are coming, I believe you--just don't forget in the throes of new fatherhood.
Seana,
Just finished Pirate Latitudes. It's an entertaining, good book, though you can tell Crichton either never had a chance to flesh it out or just never intended to publish it. The story is a little rushed in parts, but on the whole, I enjoyed it.
He is one of my favorite authors. The biggest criticism leveled against him was his characterization, or lack thereof. I always thought he did a serviceable job with his characters; I think he was just more concerned with story and writing page-turners, which he was great at.
Still can't get over the title of this new book, though. Sounds like a Jimmy Buffet song.
Anything with the word pirate in the title sells, though, so it is probably very savvy. I always tell my coworkers to just put any pirate books out front and they will sell themselves. Latest entrant is a book called "Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean". We've probably already sold about fifteen copies of it in trade paperback just by putting it where people can see it.
One of the things I learned about Crichton from that show was that he wrote his first novel while in medical school because the curriculum wasn't challenging enough for him to use all his time(!). He then sold it as a movie and did not take payment, but instead asked to learn all about directing it. He seems like one of those 'think outside the box' kinds of guys.
I remember he was in disfavor for awhile in the bookstore because his book about sexual harrassment reversed the gender roles. I didn't read it, but it sounds like an interesting way to approach it to me, as it really all does come down to power.
Seana,
That's a great story about Crichton. I think I read the book in question, A Case of Need, about a doctor who tries to clear his friend's name who's been accused of performing an illegal abortion. Very impressive for a first book. I think James Coburn starred in the movie of the same name.
That's a great point re: Pirates. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes all the sense in the world.
Yes, I think it was that book. I was unclear from the interview whether it was ever actually a book or had gone straight to screenplay.
I was going to say that if only we could think of something about pirates, we'd have it made. But actually, I already did, come to think of it. A little story I wrote called The Pirate's True Love got picked up by a zine called Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and then was anthologized twice. I'm absolutely sure it was the pirates that took it so far.
Seana,
Anthologized twice? Nice work!
Got a link?
Sounds like you've got a lot of short stories out there in print. They'd close a query letter for a novel quite nicely....
Yeah, it was a bit unfortunate though, because the first anthology was supposed to be published by a well known publisher in the fantasy field, but went out of business just before this was due out when the publisher died in a car accident. The editor, Jonathan Strahan was still able to bring out the anthology through Locus magazine, and it came out pretty well, but didn't really have the same distribution.
The other anthology was Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and I was going to say that there wasn't really a link, but apparently there's a recent ezine of the original zine here where there's an excerpt.
The entire story isn't that much longer than the excerpt, though.
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